


XOXO

by PBnJ



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Fluff, Light-Hearted, Other, The Hand That Feeds AU, smol venom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 15:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17082743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PBnJ/pseuds/PBnJ
Summary: A possible scenario where Anne meets smol Venom.





	XOXO

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Schadenfiend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schadenfiend/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Hand that Feeds](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16399862) by [Schadenfiend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schadenfiend/pseuds/Schadenfiend). 



Anne Weying hesitates, her hand halfway to the door. This is probably a bad idea.

She takes a deep breath, lets it out, and knocks on the door four times. There’s silence as she waits. Just as she’s about to knock again, the door unlocks. It creaks open a few inches, revealing a dark apartment. That’s not creepy at all. 

Maybe something’s happened to Eddie. Maybe there’s a creeper in the apartment right now, lying in wait. Anne’s hand dips into her pocket and curls around her travel-sized can of mace. 

“Eddie?” she calls. “Are you okay?” 

A light comes on. Anne can’t see Eddie OR a creeper. Thoroughly confused, she steps inside. She doesn’t get more than a few steps before something wraps around her ankle. 

If Anne had been given two hundred guesses as to what might have taken hold of her ankle, she wouldn’t even have considered “a blob of moving slime.”

She’s so shocked that she doesn’t scream; all that she can manage is a gasp. Anne vigorously shakes her leg, so vigorously that her shoe flies off. The slime lets go of her ankle and slithers after her shoe. As Anne looks on in disbelief, it pulls the heel over to a spot near the coat rack. It nudges her shoe until the heel is next to a pair of Eddie’s sneakers. 

The slime winds its way back to Anne and creeps towards her other foot. Anne steps out of her other heel and the slime takes this shoe too. It sets her other heel next to that heel’s mate. Again it approaches her. This time, it stretches itself way out and starts CLIMBING UP HER FUCKING LEG. 

“No no no.” 

Anne shakes her leg hard. She doesn’t know if she should touch it, so she doesn’t try swatting it off. The slime blob clings to her pantyhose. Anne shakes her leg even harder. The blob goes flying and lands on the floor a couple of feet away in a little pancake. It gathers itself into a mound again, and Anne’s bladder nearly lets go. Because the thing is LOOKING at her.

Two perfectly white eyes are looking up at her. It doesn’t look particularly happy. Anne’s hand covers her mouth. The thing is alive?! The thing can SEE her?! 

Anne lifts up her mace. The slime extends two little protrusions. They look like a pair of hands with their palms out in a “don’t shoot!” pose. Anne evaluates the blob, mace still raised. Its eyes widen earnestly, and it does low-key jazz hands. For a little bit, neither of them move. Then, experimentally, Anne lowers the mace just a little. The creature lowers its hands just a little.

“If I put this down, are you gonna hurt me?”

The white eyes scrunch in a puzzled frown.

“Can you understand me?” Anne asks, more slowly.

Nothing. 

Anne slips the mace into her pocket without letting go of it. The slime creature noticeably relaxes. It waves the hand-like protrusions, and Anne gives it her attention. The blob lengthens the protrusions. Anne tenses up, but it doesn’t try to touch her again. Now the little protrusions look like arms. The slime flexes and wiggles the arms. Anne thinks it’s stretching, but then it sheds a small piece of its body. Anne doesn’t understand, so it reabsorbs the piece and tries again. 

The fourth time it repeats the motion, the light bulb clicks on in Anne’s head. 

“You want me to take off my coat?” She tugs at one of her coat’s sleeves as she says this, and the blob quivers animatedly. 

Feeling like she’s in the middle of a particularly weird dream, Anne shrugs out of her coat. The blob stretches itself quite thin in order to be tall enough to tug the coat from her hands. It determinedly drags the coat to the coat rack and begins the climb. 

The blob loses its grip on the rack twice. It drops the coat four times. Anne has pity on it before it can make a seventh attempt. 

She picks up the coat, to which the blob is still clinging, and hangs the garment on the rack. “There.”

The blob drops onto her arm. They snake down to her hand before she can take them off. She doesn’t have time to cry out before her hand is ensnared in gooey tendrils. A scream dies in Anne’s throat. The blob tightens their grip a little bit, and it feels like a hand giving hers a reassuring squeeze. 

The blob isn’t going to hurt her. Anne thinks this, but the thought isn’t hers. There’s no voice in her head, just a feeling of certainty that’s being transferred over to her. The blob ripples, and Anne feels a glow of warm affection. Again, it’s not her own. The blob is doing this, Anne realizes. They’re communicating with feelings. She’s their guest, and they want her to feel welcome. (So that’s why they took her coat and shoes.) 

Anne goes a weak in the knees as they let her experience the fondness that they feel for Eddie. They ADORE him. He is the giver of all good things (and a few bad ones). They love to be with him. They love to hear his voice, even if they can’t understand a thing he says. 

Eddie likes her, so they like her too. 

For the first time since Anne laid eyes on this slime blob, Anne lets herself relax just a little. 

They want to get her a glass of water now. Anne had a vitamin water about 45 minutes ago, so she’s not really thirsty. But she can feel how much the blob wants to be a good host, so she humors them and heads to the kitchen. Anne opens the kitchen cupboard with the intention of getting out one of the three clean glasses. The blob HISSES, and Anne flinches. They cling to her arm to keep from falling to the floor. 

A tendril rubs one of Anne’s knuckles, and again she feels that they won’t hurt her. A tongue pokes out from a spot below the creature’s eyes to lap at her fingers. Anne knows it’s an apology without them having to tell her. She extends her hands, and they slither into the cupboard. They select a glass and plop down to the counter. Anne half expects to hear the crink of broken glass, but they cushion the impact with their weird little body.

Breakage happens about thirty seconds later. The blob gets to the sink fine, but they fly too close to the sun when they attempt to turn on the tap while they’re still holding the glass. The glass slips down into the sink, where it smashes on several dirty dishes. The blob hisses again. Anne can tell from their eyes that they’re scowling. 

“Oh, that’s okay, little guy.” 

It broke in the sink, so cleanup should be easy. Anne peers into the sink to inspect the damage. The glass has met its maker, and a coffee mug and at least one plate have also perished. Anne reaches down, but the blob stays her hand. A picture pops into Anne’s head: it’s herself sucking on a bleeding finger. The blob looks serious. 

“Okay, point taken. Does Eddie even have-“ The blob splits in half. Before Anne can finish, “Kitchen gloves,” they’ve completely coated both her hands. She turns her hands over. It looks like she’s wearing black, shiny gloves. “I- thank you.” 

She frowns with concern as a thought occurs to her. “Won’t it hurt you if I use you to pick up glass?”

They nonverbally tell her no. 

“Well, all right.” 

Anne drags the kitchen trashcan over and starts picking the broken glass out of the sink. It really feels like she’s wearing gloves- gloves that are a perfect fit. When she’s done with her task and her new friend snaps back into one blob, Anne ruffles the top of their head. Their eyes narrow with pleasure. 

“Aren’t you the sweetest little-“

“HEY!!” thunders a groggy voice.

Anne scrambles back and nearly knocks over the trashcan. Eddie is standing in a defensive stance. He’s clutching a baseball bat, and he’s in his underwear. Anne’s face gets hot and she averts her eyes.

“Annie?” Eddie sounds baffled. 

“Eddie.” Anne nods, still not looking directly at him. 

Eddie lowers the bat. “Thought you were a robber or something… what are you doing here?” 

“I came to check up on you.”

“Why?” 

“You sent me a bunch of really weird texts?” Anne prompts. Does he really not remember? 

“I didn’t send… any…” He’s registered that he’s in nothing but his underwear. He goes bright red. “I’ll be right back.” 

Eddie flees to his room and locks the door. The blob makes a bubbling sound that could almost be a chuckle. 

“That wasn’t awkward.” Anne mumbles. 

The blob nuzzles her hand. Instinctively, she kisses the top of their head like she always does to her kitty when he nuzzles her. They wriggle with delight, so she gives them another kiss. They thrum euphorically in her hands as she kisses all over what she assumes to be their face and their head. Anne giggles; they have lipstick kisses all over them now. 

The bedroom door opens, and Eddie comes out. He’s wearing jeans and a concert t-shirt. It looks like he brushed his hair a little bit. There are sheet wrinkles on half his face. 

“Did you just wake up?” Anne asks, surprised. “It’s-“ she checks her watch. “1:30 PM.” 

“You come into MY house… attack me like this…” Eddie’s smiling, but he sounds like he’s only half-joking. “Hey, if it’s 1:30, shouldn’t you be at work right now?”

The blob crawls up Anne’s arm and butts their gooey head affectionately against her shoulder. Anne cuddles them to her bosom and they relax against her, all but melting into her arms. 

“There was a gas leak in the building.” 

Eddie’s eyes widen. “Oh, shit. Is everybody okay?”

“Oh, yeah. Everybody’s fine. We all just got a half day. I’m going to have to catch up on a lot of work at home, but what can you do?” Anne skritches under what passes for the blob’s chin, and they blep blissfully. “They’ve sure got one heck of a tongue.”

“Yeah, they love to try and steal food right off my plate from across the damn table. Which makes meal time so much more fun and exciting!” 

“Wait, they eat with you?” Anne’s paused the skritching without realizing it, and the blob nudges against her fingers. She starts skritching again, and they warble happily.

“We do almost everything together,” Eddie admits, sounding a little bashful. “We’ve become bros.”

Anne smiles. “They really love you.” 

Eddie scratches the back of his head. “How can you tell?” 

“They told me. Didn’t you? Yes, you did.” Anne gives the blob a little squeeze.

“They talked to you?!” Eddie exclaims. “Holy shit, I’ve been trying to communicate with them for weeks! What did they say??”

“Nothing. They kind of showed me with- feelings? And a couple of mental images.” 

“Really.” Eddie stares down the blob. “They never did that for me.”

Is Eddie jealous of the attention that the blob’s been giving her? 

“Speaking of communication…” Anne gets out her phone, glad to change the subject. “You really don’t remember sending me half a dozen texts?”

“Anne, I swear I haven’t texted you since- since I heard about you new beau.”

Anne finds the messages and shows him. Paragraph after paragraph of gibberish goes by as she scrolls. 

“I thought the first one could have been a mistake, a butt-text or something,” Anne tells him. “But then you sent another one. And another. I wondered if you were having a medical episode.” 

She’d thought about calling the police and asking them to check in on him, but she’d been in the area and she’d decided to check on him herself.

“That’s- that’s really nice of you to look out for me like that, but I did not send these.”

They both look at the blob.

“No fucking way.” Eddie mutters.

The blob looks exceptionally pleased with themselves.

“How did they know my passcode?! How did they even find our messages?”

Anne gets another flash of insight from the blob as she strokes their head. “My picture in your contacts, Eddie. They looked for my face.” They think she’s pretty. Anne flushes with pleasure. They really are the sweetest little goo.

Eddie leans heavily against the kitchen counter. “They can work a phone and send a message.” he says, sounding a little dazed. “They can differentiate between faces.”

“They can do a lot more than that.” Anne informs him. “They let me in-“

“They can unlock a door?!”

“-turned on a light, took my shoes and my coat, and tried to get me a drink of water.”

“I think I need a drink. Something a lot stronger than water, though.” Eddie walks to the fridge. “Can I interest you in a shitty beer?” 

Anne considers. She doesn’t have to drive after this; she’s taking the bus home since Dan’s car is in the shop and Dan is borrowing her car. Why not. 

“One beer. Let’s keep this strictly platonic.” 

“Of course.” 

Eddie rifles in the fridge and comes out with two beers and a package of chocolate chip cookies. The blob perks up. 

“They get grumpy if I have something to eat or drink and they don’t have something too.” Eddie explains. 

“They like cookies?”

“Oh, yeah. They love the chocolate, especially. They love chocolate even more than they love making my life difficult.” 

Eddie flicks a cookie like a frisbee, and the blob snaps it up. 

Anne is charmed. “Can I give them one next?”

“Sure, but don’t overdo it. If they have too many cookies, it gets them all wired.”

He passes her the package and one of the beers. Anne takes a cookie from the package once she’s sitting on the couch. The blob tilts their head as she moves a cookie back and forth in front of them. Her front feels wet, and when Anne glances down she finds they’ve drooled green drool on her power suit. She flips the cookie up in the air, and they nab it almost too quickly for her to see. 

As they crunch up the cookie, Anne wonders, “What are they?”

“Damned if I know,” Eddie says. “They’re one of a kind, that’s for sure.” 

The blob eats two more cookies from Anne’s hand, then gives her one last nuzzle before slithering over to Eddie. They’ve been an excellent host, giving lots of attention to their guest, but now they’re ready to return to their favorite person. They crawl up to his chest and curl up there like a kitten, and he rubs what might be their back. 

“I wonder what they were trying to tell me.” Anne says, thinking again of those paragraphs of gibberish. 

Eddie shrugs. “Who knows. Maybe they wanted to meet you.”

As Anne looks at Eddie, she can see that something’s changed in him. He’s feeling better, she can tell. This new job- and this new companion- have been good for him. His smiles reach his eyes, and he has more energy. 

For the first time since their split, Anne thinks that Eddie is going to be okay. 

Even though she’s moved on, Anne still cares about Eddie. She thinks a part of her always will, even though she’s not in love with him anymore. She worries about him sometimes. Eddie’s a knucklehead, and he can be an incredible asshole. But Anne wants him to have a fulfilling life with more happiness than pain. She wants him to have love and peace. Anne is pretty sure that the blob wants those things for him, too.

She makes eye contact with them. Silently, she tells them, ‘Thank you for taking care of this big idiot.’ 

She isn’t touching them, but they understand her. They smile and give her a little wink.

Then they jog Eddie’s beer as it’s halfway to his lips, which sends about a third of the drink onto his shirt. 

As Eddie splutters and yells, Anne takes a sip of her own drink so he won’t see that she’s a little misty-eyed. Her knucklehead has found a fellow knucklehead, and he’s going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> One day, I was thinking about a picture I'd seen of a dog with lipstick kisses all over their face, and I just... thought of smol Venom. I thought this was gonna be shorter, but it took on kind of a life of its own. (As is the case with 95% of what I write.) 
> 
> I really like The Hand That Feeds; it's adorable and sweet and really funny, with a dash of quality angst thrown in there for some extra flavor. Smol Venom blob, Eddie's shitty beer, and this AU belong to Schadenfiend (who is lovely, by the way). It was fun to play with this AU; thank you, Schadenfiend! 
> 
> Btw, Venom hissed at Anne when she went for the glass because they wanted to get it for her. They just wanted to be chivalrous, okay.


End file.
